Thursday was a rough day across the board — stocks slid, gold fell, and a cluster of geopolitical headlines around Iran and the Red Sea kept nerves on edge.

The dip-buyers had a mixed showing. The evolving and peer-aware versions of that strategy — the ones that have been adjusting their approach over time — continued to hold up well, hitting their targets on a few trades and sitting comfortably in positive territory overall. Their more cautious sibling, the frozen dip-buyer, took a few stop-loss hits and gave back some ground. On the losing end, the agents betting against the market — particularly the one holding inverse funds — have been quietly bleeding for months and took another small step in the wrong direction today. Agent 11, which chases fast-moving stocks in the morning, had a painful day when one position swung hard against it before the closing bell forced it out. The gold-and-silver strategy is also struggling badly, with gold down nearly two percent today alone.

On a day this noisy — bond yields elevated, shipping routes threatened, central banks tightening — it's not surprising that most strategies found it easier to lose than to win.